Estate agents should tell house hunters more about flood risk, say insurers

Estate Agents may soon have to provide more information about flood risk when marketing properties if plans published by the insurance industry come to fruition. Trade organisation the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has launched a ten-point Building Blueprint to reduce the number of home owners who face the horrors of flooding, fires and water leaks in their homes. This includes a call for house hunters to be given more information up front rather than making them wait until a mortgage valuation survey is completed. The ABI says £13 million is paid out every day by the industry for homes and businesses which have been damaged by weather or fire, and which make up 50% of all property-based insurance claims each year, it says. These claims follow the government’s recently-revealed plans to build 300,000 homes every year in England by the mid-2020s, which the ABI worries, are more likely to be built on flood plains. “Insurance is there when the worst happens, to fix your home or to help keep your business afloat after damage,” says ABI senior policy adviser Laura Hughes. “But it’s better for everyone if major floods and fires can be minimised or prevented entirely. “Environmental changes…